High-speed rail for the North has been promised by the government with £45 billion pledged. But Reform UK has said that they would scrap it, without having any plan for how they would improve rail travel in the North. It was reported on 13 January that the government had announced plans for a new railway between Liverpool and Manchester. As part of the development of Northern Powerhouse Rail, there would also be electrification between Leeds and Sheffield, York and Bradford by the 2030s, while in the North East, there will be work on the business case for the Leamside Line. The government was reported to have said its plans “will boost economic potential and living standards in the north, with more reliable and more frequent trains serving major cities, adding up to £40 billion a year to the economy”. Reform will scrap high-speed rail for the North However it was reported in January that this much-needed high-speed rail link across the North is under threat from the election of a Reform government that has said that it will scrap it. It was noted that “Reform are already promising to scrap the scheme if they get in – ripping £45 billion away from the North.” Reform wants a ‘second class railway for the north’ Indeed, it was back in September 2025, the very month that saw the 200th anniversary of the first passenger steam train service in the world, in the North, between Stockton and Darlington that Reform first made it clear that they will slash this important investment in the north. Richard Tice, the deputy leader of Reform UK made it clear that a future Reform government would scrap plans to build the Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) link. The report went on to say that Tice had said in a report to the right-leaning Policy Exchange think tank, that companies considering bidding for contracts to build east-to-west high-speed rail links should “not bother”. In response, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham criticised Tice’s comments and claimed that Reform UK wanted a “second-class railway” for northern England. Tice was also reported as saying: “Outside a bubble of politicians, journalists and construction industry lobbyists, also exposed by this report, the voters of the North do not want, and never have wanted, a handful of high-speed rail lines, serving a handful of big cities, at fares only business people on expenses can afford. “They want the money to be spent on the often failing railways (and roads) that they actually use.” However, there was no information presented on how exactly Reform would improve the ‘often failing railways’ in the North and no ideas as to what exactly Reform’s plans for transport in the North are. Tice also didn’t seem to offer any evidence either to back up his claim that high-speed rail was really not what the North wanted. Where is the Reform plan? It was also reported In September 2025 that in response to Tice’s comments a spokesperson from the Labour Party had said: “Yet again Reform have said what they’re against but have no plan for delivering what they’re supposedly in favour of. They don’t know. Only Labour is investing in rail, connecting communities across the North and delivering the modern transport system Britain needs.” Meanwhile Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, commented: “Mr Tice and Mr Farage are both creatures of the London establishment and so I am not surprised in the slightest to hear Reform make the argument for a second-class railway for the north of England. “Across Europe, every other country connects its big cities by modern high-speed rail but, like the Conservatives before them, the Reform party seems to believe that this should be a privilege only conferred on the southern half of the UK. We have higher ambitions for the North than them.” Does Reform care about the North? In recent weeks, we have seen more and more of the stale old Tory faces, from the 14 years of failure filling up the Reform ranks; Nadim Zahawi, Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman being the three latest defections to Reform, the same Tories who so callously neglected the north for so many years up to 2024. Meanwhile the leadership of Reform is still firmly in the hands of Nigel Farage, who grew up in London and was a city banker before entering politics. After so many years of neglect from the governments based in Westminster and Whitehall, the North is crying out for a government which understands their needs and it can trust and which will take their demands seriously. What we appear to have in the leadership of Reform are people from the south of England, telling us in the North what we want and what we don’t want, while ensuring that money that could be spent on boosting the economy in the North and improving people’s lives is not spent. Reform does indeed seem to be good at saying what they don’t want – money spent in the North – while unable to clearly articulate what they do want to see happening. Does Reform really care about the North?
